Comment by smokel
7 days ago
This has probably little to do with skill being lost, and more with how little one gets paid to do this kind of work. Skilled people can get jobs in other fields that earn a lot more.
7 days ago
This has probably little to do with skill being lost, and more with how little one gets paid to do this kind of work. Skilled people can get jobs in other fields that earn a lot more.
Skilled people don’t just appear out of thin air. Skilled people need years of practice, and advice from a network of adjacent skilled people to become skilled in a particular craft.
You can be skilled at Excel and be 10 years away from knowing how to make even mass produced low quality clothing.
No no, it's the skills. My colleague worked for a very high priced fashion brand who were able to pay high rates (and indeed did for this and other parts), but they couldn't get the quality they needed.
At the low end, sure, it's obvious you'll get more for your money abroad. The point here is that the skills are lost and you can't pay any amount anymore, at least not at scale (there will always be artisans who can produce extremely low volumes but these don't affect the market much).
Skilled people are still mortal and after a couple generations, they do pass away. They won't be replaced by new skilled apprentices if the industry hasn't been hiring.